Author: Father Lacombe Guild

The Father Lacombe Guild invites you to final Catholic Men’s Night before our summer break. It will be held on Tuesday, June 19th. For this wrap up event we will be having two speakers. We are very excited to welcome back both Fr. Shannon of the FSSP and Mr. Stefan Schwarz. Mr. Schwarz, who is currently the President of Una Voce Calgary, will be presenting on the history and mission of Una Voce, and Fr. Shannon will be teaching about some aspects of the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

Joe, our caterer, has agreed to go all out for this event and he will be preparing Ribs, baked beans, and additional sides.

Please respond to this email no later than Sunday, June 17th so that food preparations can be made properly. If you would like to sign up to come, please reply to this email and let us know if you are bringing any guests.

The Father Lacombe Guild invites you to another Catholic Men’s Night on Thursday, May 17th. We are very excited to welcome Father Michel Kassas, a Maronite Catholic priest who shepherds the Maronite community in Calgary. He will be speaking the guild on Islam: A Catholic Point of View.

Please respond to this email no later than Tuesday, May 15th so that food preparations can be made properly. If you would like to sign up to come, or to join our email list, please email the Guild at: fatherlacombeguild@gmail.com .

The Father Lacombe Guild invites you to another Catholic Men’s Night on Thursday, April 19th. We are very excited to welcome back Father Cristino Bouvette (Swords of Truth). Father Cristino has become a popular booking for parish mission as of late and so we are very fortunate that he will be spending the evening with us. This month he will be speaking on a topic very much in line with the purpose of the Guild: Chivalry and Its Counterfeits: Authentic Masculinity and the Manhood of Christ.

Please respond to this email no later than Tuesday, April 17th so that food preparations can be made properly. If you would like to sign up to come, or to join our email list, please email the Guild at: fatherlacombeguild@gmail.com .

Our next Catholic Men’s Night will be held on Monday, February 26th. For our second men’s night of 2018 we are happy to be welcoming back Fr. Daniel Wilson of the Legionaries of Christ. This time his talk will be focusing on helping us grow in the spiritual life, especially during Lent: The Ignatian Examen & Lenten Preparation.

All men on the mailing list will be receiving an invitation and poster email very soon. Please respond to the email ASAP (ideally one week before the 26th at the latest) so that food preparations can be made properly. If you would like to sign up to come, or to join our email list, please email the Guild at: fatherlacombeguild@gmail.com .

Our next Catholic Men’s Night will be held on Thursday, January 25th. For this first event of the 2018 Calendar year we are blessed to be having Br. Bengry speak to us. Many of you have hopefully had the chance to meet Br. Bengry as he has attended many of our events over the last several months. He will be talking about something that is very close to his heart, St. Gilbert and the Gilbertine Revival. We would love to have you join us for this event, and please feel free to bring a friend along.

All men on the mailing list will be receiving an invitation and poster email very soon. Please respond to the email ASAP (ideally one week before the 25th at the latest) so that food preparations can be made properly. If you would like to sign up to come, or to join our email list, please email the Guild at: fatherlacombeguild@gmail.com .

Our next Catholic Men’s Night will be held on Thursday, December 14th. We are blessed to have our new bishop, His Excellency Bp. William McGrattan joining us to speak on the topic of “Oremus – Let Us Pray“, teaching us about the various aspects of prayer, especially as they relate to our lives as Catholic men, husbands, fathers and leaders. We would love to have you join us for this event, and please feel free to bring a friend along. What better way to spend a night in Advent this year, than to listen to our bishop teach about prayer!

All men on the mailing list will be receiving an invitation and poster email very soon. Please respond to the email ASAP (ideally one week before the 11th at the latest) so that food preparations can be made properly. If you would like to sign up to come, or to join our email list, please email the Guild at: fatherlacombeguild@gmail.com .

Our next Catholic Men’s Night will be held on Thursday, November 30th. We are thrilled to announce that we will be having Mr. Martinho Correia speak to us about the “The History and Renewal of Sacred Art“. Mr. Correia is a renowned artist and art teacher, with great knowledge of the tradition of Christian art. He attended The European University/Pontifical Athenaeum, ‘Regina Apostolorum’ in Rome from which he attained a Masters in Architecture, Sacred Art and Liturgy. This program was developed by a number of top international artists, architects and priests in response to Pope Benedict’s call for a renewal of the liturgy. Geared specifically towards artists and architects, courses covered a number of areas including, philosophy, theology and history, training students in the grand Catholic Tradition. Needless to say, we look forward to the great wisdom and insights that Mr. Correia will share with us.

All men on the mailing list will have received an email with an invitation and poster in the last week. Please respond to the email ASAP (ideally one week before the 30th at the latest) so that food preparations can be made properly. If you would like to sign up to come, or to join our email list, please email the Guild at: fatherlacombeguild@gmail.com .

An earlier version of this post had mispellings of Mr. Correia’s name. We sincerely apologize for the mistake. Corrections have been made.

Our next Catholic Men’s Night will be held on Thursday, October 19th. We are blessed to have Fr. Adrian Martens, the Chancellor of the Diocese and administrator of St. John the Evangelist speaking to the Guild on the topic of: Christian Vocation in the Light of Christ and the Holy Spirit.

All men on the mailing list will receive an email with an invitation and poster soon. Please respond to the email ASAP (ideally one week before the 19th at the latest) so that food preparations can be made properly. If you would like to sign up to come, or to join our email list, please email the Guild at: fatherlacombeguild@gmail.com .

Our next Catholic Men’s Night will be held on Thursday, September 21st, and will be something of a first for the Guild. We are blessed to have two speakers, Dr. Peter Baltutis (St. Mary’s University) and Rev. Brad Everett (Ascension Lutheran), who will be speaking to us on Luther’s Legacy: Reform or Revolution. Instead of a talk from a single speaker, the Guild council thought that a friendly discussion/debate format (with question period to follow) might be more a fitting remembrance of the beginning of Protestantism 500 years ago (1517).

All men on the mailing list will receive an email with an invitation and poster soon. Please respond to the email ASAP (ideally one week before the 21st at the latest) so that food preparations can be made properly. If you would like to sign up to come, or to join our email list, please email the Guild at: fatherlacombeguild@gmail.com .

After a few months off, it’s time to update the Guild website and give some details about upcoming events. We are looking forward to an excellent set of speakers this fall, with two bishops speaking to us, and a discussion/debate (something new!) on Martin Luther. Details for the bishops’ talks are available already, and we’ll have information about September’s event up in the next few days.

Over the summer months I’ve been reading a number of recent books that detail the crisis of Christendom, specifically in its social and political aspects. Books such as Rod Dreher’s Benedict Option, Anthony Esolen’s Out of the Ashes, and Ryszard Legutko’s (Polish philosopher) The Demon in Democracy are all excellent books on the topic, and for those interested in some reading, are highly recommended.

One other book though, just finished today, is the one I’d like to highlight. It is by Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia – Strangers in a Strange Land: Living the Catholic Faith in a Post-Christian World. This book, by a solid Catholic leader and shepherd, is definitely recommended to all Guild members. Although it focuses on the American experience (especially in the first half), its critique, recommendations and wisdom have much to offer all Catholic men who are trying to navigate the confused and confusing swamps of post-modern Canadian society as faithful Christians.

To give you a taste of the content, Archbishop Chaput recently gave an address at the Napa Institute that briefly summarizes many of the key ideas in the book. Please read the talk here. If you decide to explore further, the book is readily available at various Internet bookstores.

As Christian men, called to serve Our Lord in the world, it is essential that we are continually forming ourselves in such a way that we can do battle using the weapons of prayer, truth and charity. To this end, we must read good Catholic books. As the Archbishop says: We need to pray. And we need to read – above all the Word of God, but also history and biographies and great novels. If we don’t read, we condemn ourselves to chronic stupidity and a conditioning by mass media that have no sympathy for the things we believe.
– TR